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"I think there's a connective tissue from these movies and the hip-hop and urban dance movies being shown today.

"It's about aspiration. All these films are about people trying to get ahead and have a better life through their dance."

In How She Move, opening tomorrow, this involves kids from Jane-Finch forming dance teams and going for the big prize at a Detroit "stepping" competition. ("Stepping" is a dance form associated mostly with young, urban blacks.)

Among the competitors are the movie's heroine, Raya Green (Rutina Wesley) and her main female rival, Michelle (Tré Armstrong.)

In filming the dance competition, Rashid was particularly inspired by Saturday Night Fever (1977), starring John Travolta as Tony Manero.

"That movie had a big hold on me when I was growing up," Rashid says. "You can look at Tony Manero and see a bit of Raya Green in him." Both the Italian-American disco king and the Jamaican-Canadian virtuoso step dancer have a burning desire to get out of a stultifying life.

This movie lends something of a Canadian flavour to the genre, and not just because of its setting – which is never made very explicit in the movie. The dancing itself, according to Armstrong, who lives in Mississauga, has a distinct Toronto style.

Armstrong, 28, has been dancing since the age of 5. Initially she took ballet, jazz and tap – a regimen that lasted until she was 15.

"It became too mundane for me, too traditional, too in-the-box," says Armstrong. "I went to hip hop and looked to get myself to L.A. To let them know. Let's get this thing going."

The "thing" has been going for a while, with her appearances as a dancer in various movies and videos, but How She Move represents her first major role.

As Michelle, wearing a wig that looks like it was borrowed from one of the Supremes and shoulders made bulkier by the magic of Hollywood, Armstrong comes across as leader of the pack. In person, she is lithe, curly-haired, blessed with refined good looks and not at all pugnacious.

Her dance could be in your face, however, whenever her character called for it. "We advance our understanding of the characters through the dance," says Rashid.

Born in Tanzania and raised in Toronto's Flemingdon Park, Rashid argues that the Toronto dance style naturally emerged from the city's multicultural atmosphere.

"When I grew up in Flemingdon, it was very heavily Caribbean," he recalls. "All my pals were from Trinidad and Guyana, so I feel I have a little insight into that community."

Rashid, 42, now lives in London where he has written for such television series as London Bridge and This Life. "I feel that the longer I live away, the more Canadian I feel," he says.

"I've never felt as Canadian as when I first moved to England. That move consolidated it for me. I think there are a lot of stories I want to tell about this country."

So far in his storytelling career, he has divided his labours by country: he does television in England and films in Canada. His first movie was Touch of Pink (2004). How She Move is his second.

"Not being black, people wondered what drew me to this project," he says.

"To be honest, it felt really personal to me. I didn't think of not being black as a reason for staying away from it. The character of Raya is someone I really identify with. She could be me.

"I think this film is about the scars of immigration as it is about anything.

``The character of (Raya's) mother sort of fuels the story. Her immigration to Canada has betrayed her in a way and she didn't achieve what she wanted to as an immigrant.

"And now she's projecting all her ambitions on her daughter. That's something a lot of us from very different backgrounds can identify with."

The Canadian-ness of Rashid might also have something to do with the de-emphasis on drugs and crime in the movie.

"It's there in the background," Rashid says.

"From reading newspapers we know what's going on in some of these neighbourhoods, but whenever you do sort of portray drug use and violence onscreen you're glorifying it," he adds.

"It didn't seem necessary. At its core, the movie is about some good kids who are trying to get ahead."

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